So... where should I begin? Well, I'm back. Back from the land of the long white cloud, although it felt like land of the strong wind! So windy!!
Had a string of bad luck at the start of the trip... Beginning on Tuesday night, the eve before we flew out. Uh, I'm not sure how to say it, so I'm just going to be honest. Marcel and I, we aren't together anymore. Its a little complicated, but at the moment, I don't feel the same way anymore, and I told Marcel on the night before... It was difficult, and I wasn't sure about going, but we decided that we would go together and then... So, a turbulent start, to say the least.
Waking on Wednesday, after hardly any sleep (tears all night), I turned to Marcel and said that I was a little worried about the rental company accepting his drivers licence, its expired. My answer was: SHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT!!! He had lent his drivers licence to a friend on the farm as an id to go out on the night before he came back to Brisbane and had not got it back from him! ARH! So, we paced and we fretted and we came up with an idea to use a fake one. Which meant, Marcel had to frantically call and message all his friends back in Brazil to scan their licence and send it over here... I know, illegal.. but we couldn't do anything else. Got one and he cut and paste his name over it, while I got ready, and then I finished it off while Marcel got ready. Haha... it was pretty good, it IS pretty good. Right, got that done just in time, and then we had to worry about where we were going to print it when we landed. We were already short on time between when we landed and picking up the van... Decided to worry about that when we got there and went off to the airport. Flight was delayed due to freak storms on Wednesday morning... which meant we would miss the pick up time for the van... But, that was kind of cool anyway, got to spend a night in Auckland. Anyway, we got there, and found an internet cafe with a colour printer. It must have looked so dodgy, haha, it WAS!! We had to print it 3 or 4 times to get the size right... I'm sure that the guy from the internet cafe was laughing at us... hahah. The licence was perfect though. The campervan rental accepted it easy. They didn't even look at it other than to get Marcel's date of birth and full name!!
*phew*
Off we went, had a beautiful van... not the ones we asked for, but it is hard to get them. We had a van called Harakeke... I'll upload photos to my flickr.
Anyway, we set off and all was good. Went to the Bay of Islands, a beautiful coastal area at the top of the north island. Islands and reefs and diving and swimming with dolphins... Actually, we didn't swim with dolphins, was quite chilly! But it was pretty anyway. We drove around, found this perfect spot to camp, with this gorgeous view of a bay and lighthouse... beautiful! I walked around to see if there were signs saying not to camp, and there wasn't, which was perfect! Cooked dinner listening to a Maori meeting happening next door. Singing and chanting and things... was pretty cool. We set up the bed, went to sleep... peaceful... finally.
Only to be woken up at 6 in the morning by someone knocking on the door and informing us that we couldn't camp there!! GAR!!! It was 6 in the morning! Too late.. we had camped... haha.. Anyway, we said sorry, drove somewhere else, stopped on the side of the road and got some more sleep.
When we actually did wake up, we set off again, north. We wanted to go to the tip of the north island... Was pretty remote up there. Lots of trees... haha. Just over halfway there we realised we were running a little low on petrol... Hmm, okay, no worries I thought, there is a town coming up, surely there will be petrol... Nope, okay, maybe the next town... nope... okay.. lets not worry just yet.. surely there will be one.. AHA! SERVICE STATION! We pulled in, relieved that we had made it, only to see signs on the petrol pumps: Out of order. North, nothing, nada, zip, 0. Last petrol station is 60 kilometres south! I went in to see if there was something, anything.. turns out the petrol tanker hadn't been up there for a month or more... Ooooooookay. This is not good... Our only option was to travel south. So, we headed off, coasted most of the way... And rolled into a service station just on empty!
Right, so couldn't go to the top... no worries, there was this other place I thought would be cool, Ninety Mile Beach. Its 90 miles long, original name yes? haha... Alrighty, lets go there. We headed out there, and behind the beach was a small place to park and turn around. There was a bit of a road leading to nowhere, that we parked on, but then thought we should move, incase someone wanted to drive up there. Ha! WHO?? Anyway, we decided to park in this area just off the road that looked perfect, just down a little bank. No worries... Reversing, reversing, turning... Then we just stopped... Oh-oh. What was that noise...? We had reversed down a bank that was probably a bit to steep for us, and into soft sand! Crap. We tried digging and putting rocks under... nothing worked. I even got some english backpacking girls to come and help push, yeah, that was successful. Haha... We found this old sign on a fence up that road that we wanted to get off, said "no shooting".. thought we could wedge that under the wheel, perhaps it would give it a bit of grip. But no... that didn't work either. BUGGER! Stuck. So, I called the campervan company, and they gave me another number to call, called that number and they couldn't help, but they gave me a number of a company that could. Got the tow truck out, pretty fast, I think they thought we were actually on the beach, and that we would be in pretty deep water if the tide came up. Haha.. no, we were in a carpark thing behind the beach! Anyway, the guy hooked us up, and Marcel had to drive a little, only then the campervan started to tip over. It was pretty scary. Got a little worried... so did the tow guy, and Marcel... He got us out though, for a small price... but at least we weren't stuck there. Heh... When we got out, we did actually go to the beach. Was like a little highway actually. Ninety miles of sand... there were tour buses that TORE down the beach like a highway!! So fast... and as far as you could see was the same thing... straight, flat beach. And bluebottles. Water was freezing too.... And again, windy!
After that we headed south... Camped in a holiday park that night. So that we wouldn't be woken up at some ridiculous hour. Hah. The next day we headed around the coast south, and took a couple of wrong turns... We were going down this road, and I had this feeling it was wrong. So, we decided that we should turn around. But, country roads in New Zealand are rather narrow. There isn't much room either side of them... especially not if you've got a campervan! Saw a little area that had green grass on either side, we could probably turn around there... Pulled over, into the grass, stopped, changed into reverse... what was that noise...??? AGAIN?!! (Okay, this is where I threw my temper tantrum... kicking and screaming... haha.. loud enough that the whole valley we were in could have heard). Tried to get out and push and everything, but then we started slipping down the bank. There was a bank, and a drop, that if we went down, we would be screwed... Luckily, it wasn't far from a small road and a house, and luckily someone had just decided to go into town. I stopped him, and asked if he would be able to help... He got out of the car, and all I saw was Mr Martin! Haha.. Exactly the same! A dairy farmer, completely country, weather worn skin... same way of talking.. Very funny. He got us out no problems with his car... towed again. He advised us to stay on the roads from now on, everything was green and wet and muddy, too easy to get stuck, especially in our van. I noted that down, we agreed not to go on any earth material at all, no dirt, no grass, no sand, no rocks.. it was bitumen or nothing! Hahah. We did turn around in the end... and went all the way back, only to realise that we were going the right way. Haha.. great.
We drove on, and on and on, and on... south south south. Went down past Auckland... around to the east a little. We stopped in a couple of places, spent sleepless nights being blown around. The wind was so strong over there, it would rock the van at night! And there were people camping in tents!! Hahaha.. crazy!
We headed down into the thermal area, saw some mud.. and some craters... and smelt some sulpher... Lots of steam. Was pretty amazing actually. Very different landscape.
Headed down to Lake Taupo... which is where I bungy jumped... absolutely amazing. The craziest thing I've done. Bungy jumping is just what I thought. You can sky dive, and that is amazing, but if you really want to feel like your falling, do a bungy jump. You get up there, and look down... and woah... Its incredible. I jumped over a lake, so there was water below. Beautiful turquoise water with deep blue water around. 47 metres, its not the highest, there is one on the south island that is 150 metres or something ridiculous... So bit of a baby jump anyway.. only, it doesn't feel like it when your there! Was freezing cold, had started to rain and as always, windy! The feeling when you jump, I can't explain it. I jumped and I swear for a couple of milliseconds, I couldn't breath, I couldn't scream. Its like that feeling you get when you have the falling dreams just as you fall asleep. That little gasp... and then I started screaming. Hah.. And you go over, and the only thing you think is, I'm falling!!! Was amazing... I want to do it again actually! Hehe... check the video out at the bottom of this post... haha.. makes me laugh everytime.
Definitely the highlight...
We headed down to Wellington after that.. that city is quite cool indeed. Again, windy like all heck. The roaring forties or something tear through that area... And it is seriously windy... Everyday... I liked it there though. Was really nice. Think that would be a place I could live easily... heh. We spent a couple of days there, to have a break from driving. Was good.
After Wellington, we headed north, really quick actually. Saw a lot of beaches... A lot of farms. Cows next to the beach... very different to Australian beaches and the paperbark ugly hot bush you get here next to the beach. Over there, it was all dairy farms! Haha.
Anyway... Headed back, stayed in Raglan on the last night, this hippy surf-ish town that reminded me of Byron Bay a little. Was pretty nice there. It had a beach nearby that is pretty famous on the world surfing circuit, longest left hand break or something. Heh.. not sure.
So, back to Auckland, only to realise that maybe Marcel would be asked a lot of questions coming into Australia cause he didn't have his ticket out of Australia... Hmm.. stressed about that... But, it was all easy through customs. Then, home sweet home.
Good to be back.. still turbulent.
I have never cried so much in my life... but, I'm getting stronger... and sorting things out in my heart.
